What is the Autistic Spectrum all about

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12May2004

Last Updated on Tuesday, 31 August 2010 21:30

Written by Debi Evans

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Q.What are Autism Spectrum Disorders?

A. Autism Spectrum Disorders are a developmental neurological difference. You can find the diagnostic criteria in DSM IV or in ICD 10. They invove three main difficulties: those of social communication (in the diagnositc criteria as social difficulties AND language difficulties, which we think are more or less the same thing), those of inflexibility (leading to insisting on routines and some obsessions and perseverations), and those of unusual sensory perceptions (not listed in the diagnostic criteria, but referred to in the original criteria as described by Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger).